EA in overpriced DLC hash job shocker!

The officially crowned worst company in America is at it again today, striving to ensure that come this time next year, they hold on to their title. Stage 1 in doing this: their new FIFA Euro 2012 update.

Squirming its way on to XBox Live and PSN, said title is taking a detour from EA’s usual approach of trawling out a full disc release for their Euro offerings and have instead released the title as a DLC (shudder) update that runs using the FIFA 12 disc.

Ok, not too much to get hot and bothered about yet. But this is EA. Whats the real deal?

Well, lets look at this objectively. Yeah, it’s overpriced. Yeah, it’s essentially a reskinned FIFA 12 with zero gameplay enhancements or fixes over previous faults. And yeah, it’s by EA who you definately DON’T want to fund in any way, shape or form. But that’s surely all the hiccups, right?

Well, not ones to rest on their laurels as being incompetent scum, it would seem that a case of maximum reward for minimum effort is again on EA’s cards. For indeed, a gale of unbridled magnitude is harrowing the withered forrest of woe that is EA as fans vent their frustrations on message boards far and wide as they call foul of EA’s actions while they list the numerous shortcomings of this half hearted effort that has their community shouting ‘boycott’.

Complaints seem to be fixating on several things, such as the update being decidedly devoid of features and some reporting issues with the game locking up and crashing. But the main issue knocking the masses bandy is a rather peculiar issue concerning player names. This is a rather foreign occurrence to the FIFA franchise, as outside of PES nipping in and snatching the Champions League rights from under their noses, EA have mostly had every licence going under their belts.

But not so today my Grigglings!

The FIFA trump card has mysteriously slipped out of hand as the Euro update features a paltry 24 licensed nations out of 53 teams included! Therefore, you have the type of comical plays on the official player names that early PES outings had in an abundance (Giggsi anyone?). But even more staggeringly, one of the teams omitted in the officiality pickings is the host nation of the Ukraine! Seriously?!!!

Now don’t get me wrong – I couldn’t care less about FIFA. Last time I played it, it was utter trash and the decline from 09 to 11 was enough to ensure I went nowhere near 12. But the rage against EA is too much to ignore!

DLC has become a bit of a dirty word of late, and what once looked like a great way to expand core game experiences didn’t take long to fall on the wrong side of big company greed. Underhand use such as holding back content that would have once been on disc for later sale is a practice that is all too common right now. But in this case, the sheer lack of effort or willingness to spend to secure licences that would accurately represent the teams at Euro 2012 is an additional low, and once again, EA is leading the charge. Capcom are no doubt taking notes as we speak.